Brief Biography

Martin a Beckett Boyd was born in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1893 of Anglo-Australian parents.
He was brought to Australia when he was six months old. Boyd was born into a family of great
artistic and philosopical qualities - his father, Arthur Merric Boyd, and his mother, Emma
Minnie a Beckett, were painters; his brothers Merric and Penleigh were painters; as were his
nephews Arthur, David and Gaynor.

Boyd's original area of study was theology which he later changed to architecture. At the
start of World War I he travelled to England where he joined an English regiment and later the
Royal Flying Corps. He served in France during the period 1915-18. After a brief visit to
Australia after the war he returned to England in 1921 where he undertook another try at a
religious vocation in a Franciscan order in the Church of England. After this period he
started his career as a fiction writer. He returned to Australia in 1948 and settled in his
grandfather's house in Berwick. Ill health forced him to return to England in 1951 where he
remained until 1957 when he moved to Rome. He died there in June 1972.